Matt Novak

This week we have a time capsule of floppy disks that will be hard to read, a church that thinks microfilm is the best way to future-proof your capsule, and we finally get that royal baby time capsule I was wondering about last week. IT'S A BOY(sterous waste of media coverage)!

Royal Baby Gets Time Capsule, Lifetime of Undeserved Wealth

Last week I was mildly perplexed by the fact that we hadn't yet seen a royal baby time capsule. Given that so many people thought it a momentous occasion, it only seemed like a matter of time before we'd see dozens of capsules in honor of this little winner of the uterine lottery. Last weekend Jezebel even asked their readers what they'd include in a time capsule for the royal baby, but received a grand total of two replies (one of which was spam).

This week's time capsule round-up includes an arson investigation that turned up a Jazz Age…
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BUT IT'S FINALLY HERE! The time capsule that is. The Telegraph reports that the baby's uncle has created a time capsule for the little thing, enclosing newspapers, some magazines, the top ten albums of today (no word on what format), a miniature football (I think they mean soccer ball) and rugby kits (I had to google "rugby kit"). The capsule also includes the 2009 novel One Day by David Nicholls. Asked to comment on the time capsule, the royal baby promptly shit in a diamond-encrusted taxpayer-funded nappy in a nation where 3.5 million children live in poverty. [The Telegraph]

This past weekend a camp in East Brunswick, New Jersey unearthed a shallowly buried time capsule from 1993. The capsule contained letters from the people who buried it, cassette tapes, and some floppy disks which looked to be in pretty rough shape. Even if they were in working condition, you can't help but wonder where you'd go to read its contents. Along with insulating its contents from water damage, how to future-proof your media formats is one of the great debates among capsule enthusiasts. [East Brunswick Patch]

Church Sends Microfilm Into Future

And if you thought floppy disks were antiquated, how about this church in Plymouth, Massachusetts that has decided to include microfilm in its time capsule? Some of the more famous time capsules from the late 1930s include microfilm, but one can't help but wonder how the tech will look to people decades hence — let alone the kids of today! [Boston Globe]

1920s Candy Store Was Hiding A Barrel of History

During renovations at a building in Battle Ground, Washington contractors were surprised to discover a wooden barrel hidden inside a support wall. Built in 1926, the building used to house a candy shop. When the barrel was opened, they found a rusty metal box that included newspapers, an advertisement for a "benefit movie," and a weathered photograph of a young girl with the name "Jane Schroder" written on the back. The man who found the time capsule is donating it to the city and assured the other people of the town that he didn't find any gold coins or "other objects considered valuable" in the barrel. Sadly (or perhaps luckily?), there appears to have been no Jazz Age candy tucked away in the barrel. [The Reflector]

If At First You Don't Succeed, Give Up

A time capsule in Medway, Massachusetts that was buried in 1963 is still missing. And it looks like the town has finally decided to just give up on it. Back in June, the town reached out for assistance on Facebook, but every lead has turned out to be fruitless, despite the help of ground-penetrating radar. [Milford Daily News]

This week's round-up of time capsule news includes some freshly buried capsules stuffed with…
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Grade School Time Capsules Filled With Relics from 2004

Last weekend high school graduates in Durham, North Carolina opened up time capsules they had assembled in 2004, back when they were in the third grade. Eight former students of Pearsontown Elementary School were handed envelopes from their third grade teacher, Mrs. Florine Moore. The envelopes included journals, Bratz doll posters, and tales of third grade crushes. Some of the time capsules even included copies of a thing called Newsweek, a magazine that used be printed on dead trees. [The Herald Sun]